Granted Patent B2

US 11,036,744 · App. 15/914,903 · Granted Jun 15, 2021

Inventors: Srinivas Vadrevu (Milpitas, CA); Su-Lin Wu (San Carlos, CA); Ben Shahshahani (Menlo Park, CA)

Assignee: VERIZON MEDIA INC.

G06F16/24578G06F16/2455G06F16/951G06F16/9535G06F16/9537G06F16/35

Abstract

Claims (56)

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a request for news items from a user;

determining, by the processor, profile data of the requesting user;

accessing, by the processor, user logs that are communicatively coupled with the processor, the user logs comprising user activity information associated with various news sources connected to user profile data of a plurality of users;

identifying, by the processor, from the user logs, a user group having similar profile data as the requesting user;

identifying, by the processor, from the various news sources, news sources that are popular among the identified user group;

filtering, by the processor, the identified news sources based on a type of each of the news sources;

determining, by the processor, based on said filtering, a set of preferred news sources for the requesting user;

selecting, by the processor, news items from the preferred news sources based on said determination; and

transmitting, by the processor, the selected news items for presentation to the requesting user.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request is received explicitly as a user query comprising query terms that need to be searched.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request is received implicitly via the user accessing a webpage associated with the processor.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the profile data is obtained from at least one of direct information provided by the user regarding user interests and behavior and additional profile information obtained indirectly via device information of the user.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein for the user who is logged in, the additional information is combined with known or declared interests and attributes of the user to select appropriate news sources.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein for the user who is not logged in, the device information is used to at least obtain a geographic location of the user.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the user logs comprises:

extracting, from the user logs, the profile data and news source selections of other users.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user group having similar profile data comprises other users with at least one of similar location information and similar interests and social networking information as the requesting user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined preferred news sources comprise news sources that are common across various user groups at different locations.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

eliminating, by the processor from the preferred news sources, the news sources that are common across the various user groups at different locations.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

ranking, by the processor, local news sources based on their proximity to a geographic location of the requesting user.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the geographic location of the requesting user is derived from one of an IP address or GPS information of a device employed by the requesting user.

13. A computing device, comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for executing by the processor, the program logic comprising:

receiving logic executed by the processor for receiving a request for news items from a user;

profile determining logic executed by the processor for determining profile data of the requesting user;

accessing logic executed by the processor for accessing user logs that are communicatively coupled with the processor, the user logs comprising user activity information associated with various news sources connected to user profile data of a plurality of users;

identifying logic executed by the processor for identifying from the user logs, a user group having similar profile data as the requesting user;

news source identifying logic executed by the processor for identifying, from the various news sources, news sources that are popular among the identified user group;

filter logic executed by the processor for filtering the identified news sources based on a type of each of the news sources;

news source determining logic executed by the processor for determining, based on said filtering, a set of preferred news sources for the requesting user;

selecting logic executed by the processor for selecting news items from the preferred news sources based on said determination; and

transmitting logic executed by the processor for transmitting the selected news items for presentation to the requesting user.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein the accessing logic comprises:

extracting logic executed by the processor for extracting, from the user logs, the profile data and news source selections of other users.

15. The device of claim 13 , wherein the determined preferred news sources comprise news sources that are common across various user groups at different locations.

16. The device of claim 15 , further comprising:

eliminating logic executed by the processor for eliminating, from the preferred news sources, the news sources that are common across the various user groups at different locations.

17. The device of claim 13 , further comprising:

ranking logic executed by the processor for ranking local news sources based on their proximity to a geographic location of the requesting user.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly storing thereon computer program instructions, that when executed by a computer processor, perform a method comprising:

receiving a request for news items from a user;

determining profile data of the requesting user;

accessing user logs that are communicatively coupled with the processor, the user logs comprising user activity information associated with various news sources connected to user profile data of a plurality of users;

identifying, from the user logs, a user group having similar profile data as the requesting user;

identifying, from the various news sources, news sources that are popular among the identified user group;

filtering the identified news sources based on a type of each of the news sources;

determining, based on said filtering, a set of preferred news sources for the requesting user;

selecting news items from the preferred news sources based on said determination; and

transmitting the selected news items for presentation to the requesting user.

19. The medium of claim 18 , the step of accessing comprising extracting, from the user logs, the profile data and news source selections of other users.

20. The medium of claim 18 , wherein the determined preferred news sources comprise news sources that are common across various user groups at different locations.

21. The medium of claim 20 , the instructions further defining the step of eliminating, from the preferred news sources, the news sources that are common across the various user groups at different locations.

Assignments (6)